May 30, 2010

Cafeteria y Restaurante de Pancho is the place for Alexei Ramirez

So on that April day in 2008, the newly minted Sox player headed straight to the humble Logan Square eatery Cafeteria y Restaurante de Pancho, 2200 N. California.

There, he not only found the arroz y habichuelas — rice and creamy, buttery black beans — of his mother’s kitchen, but a second home in Chicago and a friend in owner Francisco “Pancho” Mendez.

Over a recent lunch of bistec encebollado con maduros — flank steak made with a garlic, adobo, oregano, black pepper and vinegar rub and paired with sweet fried plaintains — Ramirez said, “If I’m not home or at the ballpark, I’m here.” …